The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 3 plus 5 letter word SHORT AND SWEET
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
S
H
O
R
T
A
N
D
S
W
E
E
T
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "nice while it lasts" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case nice while it lasts = short and sweet.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.